Monthly Archives: December 2016

The New Year vibe gets a head start thanks to this year’s Capricorn New Moon. It’s bringing goals, foundations and material security front and center as 2016 winds down and we head toward its successor.

The impulse is rising in even people who aren’t normally inclined to make resolutions. And for those who do, this year’s crop is not likely to have many repeats — items that carry over from one year to the next without much happening (besides being moved from list to list….)

This behavioral shift grows out of the shake-up going on with Capricorn’s ruler. What’s happening to him is refreshing our perspectives and tilting much in our lives.

Saturn, lord of order, responsibility and commitment, is in a mutually amplifying collaboration with Uranus, lord of chaos, liberation and unpredictable change. They’re injecting the old with radical possibilities (if not blasting it to smithereens) — and bringing form and grounding to gotta-be-me quests.

Previous norms don’t hold now. This is not merely true of what we’re seeing on a national and global scale. It applies directly to you. The path stretching ahead might have been unthinkable a few years back. It matches your current experience of life and understanding (and value) of yourself. So do the goals you’re inspired to set now, the practicalities you consider and the way you proceed. All are responding to shake-ups, new directions, flashes of genius, unexpected developments and a relentless, nigh on feral drive to live for yourself, darn it.

There’s no rush to set any of these. Saturn takes his time. Capricorn wants value for the long haul, not instant fixes. Retrograde Mercury has the Moon’s back in this, too. Standing right with the New Moon, he is not only encouraging slowing down, but also inviting going back over some of those practicalities.

Matters that turn up now — stray bits of info, disclosures, evidence of confusion or misunderstandings — have useful, practical potential. This is also true of annoying technology glitches. Every snag is a prompt to put your foundation in order before you go flying off on next year’s fiery energies. Opportunities to learn more and fine tune will soon follow, after Mercury goes direct in January.

This path to the future has another uncommon characteristic: encouragement not to push goals, or charge after them, or slam fists on tables and demand them. Mars, ruler of our drive and action, is in the company of grand illusionist Neptune, in the interconnected waters of Pisces.

They’re the opposite of the concrete that is so key to Saturn and Capricorn. Push in water and who knows where it will go, besides eventually back on the pusher. Instead, a receptive, feminine approach is in order: setting targets and being open to them coming to us, or our being led to them.

Pulling this off requires tools that don’t fit in a hand, but promise great worldly impact all the same. Faith, imagination, visualization and divine guidance, for starters. Awareness of the existence of others is the umbrella for other possibilities, such as compassion, gentleness, kindness, empathy and love.

Don’t ignore magic and miracles, either. They’re definitely among Neptune’s gifts. With Mars heading right for him, they’re easier to net than logic would suggest.

So think about your goals, practical and tailored to current-time you. Call on intangible help and release them with faith. Be open to magic and miracles; in fact, request and expect them. And then go with the flow.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me. Or do they? The question is up for consideration under the Gemini Full Moon. It’s highlighting the emotional power and impact of words, from the ones you tell yourself to everything that floats by, to and through you.

Where is your mind going? What’s pouring in and out of it? How’s your information flow these days? More to the point: how is it making you feel? Happy? Safe? Disoriented? Confused? Angry? Resolute?

Staying calm and centered — and even just knowing which thoughts are yours and which belong to someone else — have been more than the usual challenge lately. One reason is the epidemic of seemingly inescapable, emotionally laden messages in private and public conversation. Another is the pervasive sense that we have become unmoored from what previously passed as reality. Both trends are escalating to a point of departure now.

The weeks since the Sagittarius New Moon have brought abundant opportunity to commit to your personal code of ethics by putting it into action. They’ve also encouraged people to make statements that show who they really are. Have you been listening? Some of these statements are still hovering around you and have a role to play in your Full Moon process. Tune in to them.

Social media has been abuzz with fake news and admonitions about sites to avoid, calling out lies and spreading tantrums and Tweetstorms. What’s been your personal parallel? Think about how these phenomena have been showing up in your life. Has someone lied to you? Have you been lying to yourself? Basing opinions on faulty data?

Words that never were true, spoken to help nobody but you, words with lies inside — “Words,” by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, recorded by The Monkees

This Moon Full supports reviewing the quality and reliability of your information flow — and reshaping it to your benefit. That does not necessarily mean eliminating viewpoints that differ from yours. It’s hardly helpful to live an echo chamber that amplifies one perspective and blocks the possibility of learning and growth.

It may be time, however, to separate yourself from viewpoints and messages that violate your code of ethics, make you feel bad, or harm you. And to rethink your information sources. And maybe to spend less time online. Or more in direct contact. Face to face, even.

You can do this. Easily. The rulers of this Full Moon party are both pushing this along, in their own distinctive ways.

Cosmic messenger Mercury is the ruler of the Gemini Moon, and he’s closing in on Pluto, lord of death and regeneration, who strips everything he touches down to its essence. That’s a recipe for deep-level, permanent change., which we’ll get to revisit and take even deeper when Mercury begins his final retrograde of the year on December 19.

Less dramatically, the ruler of the Sagittarius Sun, boundless Jupiter, is making harmonious links to both the Sun and the Moon, which open both mind and heart to optimism and positive expansion.

The same result is coming from action hero Mars, in progressive, detached, future-oriented Aquarius. He is working with Jupiter and the Moon in the freely flowing energy of a grand trine. which connects thoughts, emotions and actions in a continuous loop. The warrior god’s Spock-like perspective (and willingness to fight for the greater good) is blending with the Gemini Moon’s lively, multi-faceted intellectual bent (and emotional reactions to our data flow) and Jupiter’s optimism, expansiveness and current interest in relationships and agreements.

An example of this trio’s potential is the veterans’ arrival at Standing Rock on December 4, which combined warriors, social action, and communicating information and emotions via channels outside mainstream media. Like that convergence, the Moon/Jupiter/Mars trine is pouring alternate and more beneficial possibilities into our thoughts, emotions, actions and social compacts.

Pressure is bearing down to reset boundaries, too. It may not be as comfortable as Jupiter’s input, but it’s both helpful and curative. It’s coming off the dynamic configuration of the t-square the Sun and the Moon are making to Chiron in Pisces, and offering an escape route into intactness.

With the wounded healer in the waters of interconnectedness, we have been, in some ways, drowning in emotional wounds — ours, our friends’ and family’s, those of the downtrodden or underdogs, strangers’ plights that flash across our screens, down to deep and core traumas in our collective psyche.

This Full Moon has the power to propel us out of the morass. And the way out may be as simple as changing your thinking. And that may be as simple as becoming aware of what is yours and what is someone else’s.

That impulse is right in line with the individuating fervor building within each of us. The Full Moon is a direct lead-in to the month’s biggest astro-attraction, the booster rocket blast detonating on December 24. Order-loving Saturn is teaming with cosmic instigator Uranus, with Jupiter dosing both ends with high-octane fuel accelerant.

Maximum life force is building within each of us. With wild card Uranus in the mix, it’s impossible to predict with any certainty the how and what that’s coming. Still, this Full Moon may provide some road markers.

It’s stoking the future-oriented genius of Uranus, which is inspiring courageous leaps onto our own distinctive paths. The Sun is standing with Saturn, bringing stability and an energetic grounding cord to the Full Moon and the blast that is coming.

So clean your radar. Clear out the static. Dump other people’s baggage out of your flight kit. Fine tune your signal. And buckle up for blast off.

“Overture, curtains, lights,
This is it, you’ll hit the heights,
And, oh, what heights we’ll hit,
On with the show, this is it.” – Bugs Bunny Show theme song

December brings a head-spinning mix of inevitability and unpredictability. Don’t expect it to go according to either tradition or plan. Keep your mind and schedule open, follow your instincts and you might actually have fun. Having popcorn on hand might prove useful, too.

Been stuck? Waiting for motivation? Or the right opening? Not any more. Santa (or your holiday benefactor of choice) is delivering cases of Popeye’s spinach that unleashes startling, nigh-on superhuman action.

We’re being catapulted out of the upheaval of the past five years and into directions that upheaval made possible. Everything that has broken, cracked open, shifted and reshaped over the past five years has led to the events of this month.

The next stage of the adventure is here, and the skies are giving us a high-octane send-off. Saturn and Uranus, the lord of structure and the guy who blows structures up, are igniting the first of three booster rockets that define the trajectory of the next year. (Rounds two and three come in May and November.)

The inaugural launch has Jupiter in Libra amping up (trining) Saturn and triple-dog-daring Uranus (via an opposition), effectively throwing flame accelerant into the mix. Uranus is intensifying the launch with a dragging energy that comes from nearing the end of his retrograde. Blast-off happens on Christmas Eve. (Oh, goodie, right?) We’ll be feeling the build-up in the weeks before — and the backdraft well beyond.

Jump on this and ride. This blend of controlled planetary firepower is firming, grounding and stabilizing the dramatic, innovative, going-for-broke developments so many of us are being compelled to pursue. (If you’re not acquainted with the concept of self-actualization; read up on it; we’re in for an epidemic.)

The teamwork is also zapping established ways of thinking and doing — tilting them, electrifying them, blasting them apart. Loose cannon on a rampage is one aspect of this potential, as we’ve been seeing in the collective (okay, the political news). We’re in for a startling, unforeseeable, possibly previously unthinkable development or three, a fitting cap for a year that can be charitably described as weird.

Don’t panic! The disruptions can be fun, freeing and beneficial, too. Amid this volatility, traditions hold little sway. Consider yourself off the hook from anything that does not enhance your life or bring you joy. This is a holiday season to do whatever you darn well please. Make it up as you go along, even.

As tricky as this high-octane blend sounds, the skies are beaming down plenty of reason to get on board. Links from action hero Mars to the firestarters have us raring to go as the month begins. While we’re ramping up, thoughts and communications keep us fixed on the concrete, practical and long-term, thanks to messenger god Mercury’s entry into Capricorn on the 2nd.

Venus gives relationships breathing room and a 20,000 feet-high perspective stretching far into the future, when she moves into Aquarius on the 7th. The Sun steps into the dance when he collaborates with the outer planet trio in the second week, which also brings a boost in detachment (and scads of data) from the Gemini Full Moon.

From mid-month on, that mental focus on terra firma has us slowing, turning around, rethinking and flirting with do-overs. The impetus comes from the double whammy of Mercury stationing retrograde and Mars entering anything but straightforward Pisces on December 19 — right as the calendar is hurtling us into the thick of the holidays and year-end crunch.

With Mars out of forward, march mode, this Mercury retrograde presents more than its usual challenges, adding to the anything-can-happen (or be revealed, she says cryptically) vibe coming off Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Take ordinary retrograde precautions and then some. Approach communication as susceptible to the misleading, confusing and truthy. Make allowances for technology and traffic developing snarls and blips for reasons that are not always apparent. Rely on your inner GPS.

And work the double whammy to your benefit. At the very moment you feel your life escalating into excitement and adventure, this planetary pair can draw attention to foundational matters and encourage soft, indirect action that flows around or permeates blocks. Do less, so you can do more. Reopen plans, goals, traditions for discussion (or simply back out). Play the backhand that comes so naturally to Mars in Pisces. Direct requests or demands are going to draw resistance and blow back. Try a little tenderness. Lure what you want.

This vibe permeates the solstice, which takes place on December 21, and reverberates throughout the winter season.

As weird, unfamiliar and potentially unsettling as these dynamics sound, the year’s final week holds the promise of sunniness and inner peace. Wherever that first booster rocket shoots us, the initial returns are positive. Happy hearts abound on Christmas Day, which sees Venus cavorting merrily with Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

The month and year end with clarity (the Sun conjuncting Mercury) and the concerted action and emotional goal-setting inspired by the Capricorn New Moon, on the 29th. New horizons are calling that same day, as Uranus drops his drag and stations direct. Before heading out, take a dip in the grace and harmony between the Sun and dreamweaver Neptune. They add gentleness and nostalgia as the clock runs out on a most unusual year.

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